SPI-Blockchain Technology

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain is an emerging field that is steadily revolutionizing the technology landscape. This Distributed Ledger Technology is globally considered as a secure method of storing and updating a database, within and between entities. Blockchain Technology (BT)’s reported use cases are abound in areas, as diverse as, banking and financial services, smart contracts, voting, legal records, health records, internet identity and DNS, accounting, sharing economy, social media, publishing, critical infrastructure, crowd-funding, human resource, energy supply, supply chain management, insurance, stock market, cloud computing, and so on. As bitcoins and altcoins continue to grow and mature, BT’s real value addition is gradually drawing the attention of the thought leaders and policy analysts. Today, such policy experts, academicians, and industry players have begun to evaluate BT’s contributions in the overall development of India.

Policy Discussion with Subject Experts

January 24, 2020

Keeping in mind the interdisciplinary nature of this area, we took up a policy initiative on blockchain technology to discuss key policy issues which could be taken up proactively in India to leverage BT’s growing advantages. We hosted a Policy Discussion with subject matter experts on the topic Landscaping Priority Areas for Blockchain: Cryptoeconomics, Capacity building, Scalability, Security in January 2020. Distinguished academic, industry and policy experts from the academia, industry and the government were invited for a roundtable discussion on the subject.

Some of the suggestions that came up from the discussions were:

1. The creation of a national regulatory body or a working group on BT comprising of stakeholders from the government, academia and the industry, to foster innovation and adoption of BT through the formulation and implementation of proactive, consultative, sound regulatory practices and an enabling policy environment in India. Actively engaging the relevant stakeholders from the academic community and the industry in the national policy formulation process.
2. Offering a ’regulatory sandbox environment’ that allow the testing of innovative applications on BT under a transparent regulatory framework. Formulating and implementing specific Bills and Acts on BT to encourage the monitoring of blockchain entities and smart contracts. In other words, tight regulations governing security standards to address scalability concerns and security vulnerabilities.
3. Strict laws and legislations governing data use, storage and sharing combined with stringent compliance regulations, to enable the flow of updated and secure information in a decentralized network setting.
4. Recognizing bitcoin, digital currencies and tokens as legal tender governed by well – defined regulatory guidelines on virtual currency market, crypto-exchanges, crypto-transfers, etc. Exploring the possibility of implementing crypto-taxation to regulate cryptocurrencies from manipulating prices.
5. Provision of incentives, financial grants and subsidies for advanced research and development and higher education in this emerging technology field (through specialized courses and interdisciplinary research).
6. Strengthening academia – industry and academia – government collaborations and partnerships to enhance awareness and information dissemination on the subject, spearhead specialized research initiatives, devise and teach employment oriented curriculum backed up with cross training programs to mitigate skills mismatches in the field and generate employment opportunities. Reinforcing an investor friendly environment to improve private sector investments in the field along with the public sector as well as to capitalize on the emerging scope of BT in potential sectors like supply chain management, retail trading, healthcare, etc, extensively.